Using Macro Scheduler with Citrix Receiver

[PaulSR]

Hi,

I'm currently looking to seek software which can automate a process within my current company. I've downloaded the lite version of MS and it seemed to fit all purposes with the exception of scraping text from the screen. I've now downloaded the STD version but I'm still not able to do this. I'm guessing that due to the application being delivered via citrix (ie effectively a streaming video) that MS is unable to lift text from the screen but I just wanted to check that was definitely the case?

Thanks in advance,

Paul.

[CyberCitizen]

If you are trying to capture text within a Citrix window, you will most likely need to run the macro in that Citrix session. Otherwise you can try and capture the data & run it though OCR.

This is one of the problems with Citrix sessions as it doesn't display text the same way that windows does though the remote session. If you have the ability to run the scripts within your Citrix session you should be ok.

[Dorian (MJT support)]

Macro Scheduler can control and screen scrape Citrix winframe applications.

However, this is not something I have experience with. Marcus will be back next week, and while he is not a Citrix expert either, he may have more insight than Cybercitizen and I.

[PaulSR]

Thanks guys - it is proving a nightmare this the closest I've been able to get to what is required was using something called Automation Anywhere but the licensing costs required for us to roll it out would be too high I think. I have probably this week to either select a solution or pull the plug - hopefully Marcus can shed some light.

[Dorian (MJT support)]

I am sure he'll be able to help, Yoshimax. I'm expecting him back on Wednesday.

[Marcus Tettmar]

Citrix is remote technology. It serves up the screens/windows but you're only seeing a picture. So you (the client) doesn't have access to the underlying controls. Text is therefore essentially just dots. Graphics.

So while it is easy to CONTROL Citrix apps, or other remote technologies, scraping them is difficult. As Cybercitizen says, you would really need the scraper on the Citrix side so it can "see" the bones. Otherwise as he says you'd probably need to use OCR because what you are seeing is really just pictures. You can use third party OCR libraries/apps with Macro Scheduler and have it capture screen shots to pass to the OCR engine but you mileage may vary depending on the capabilities/accuracy of your chosen OCR engine.

Now, I don't know if Citrix itself provides some kind of API interface to provide a channel to the underlying controls. But if it does Macro Scheduler doesn't know about it anyway.

I would recommend having something .. Macro Scheduler or a compiled macro .. On the Citrix side so that it has direct access to the apps without having to go through Citrix, and thus avoid OCR. You could always have a server side macro transfer info to a client side macro in some way.

Text capture is experimental at the best of times .. What works with some apps won't work with others and there are so many ways text may be rendered. Adding Citrix to the mix will just make it even more experimental.

[PaulSR]

Thanks Marcus - much appreciated.

[srhamy]

Hackish but you can position cursor,select text,copy to clipboard and Un select text